So where do we start? How about with a simple proclamation that the 350Ms are the best amps I have heard anywhere, anytime. Too subtle? Okay, specifics. For me, the ultimate measure of a component is the ability to allow the suspension of disbelief and become lost in the music. The 350Ms are eerily good in this respect. For those new to OTLs who assume a traditional modified tube sound, you will quickly realize that a good OTL sounds neither tube nor solid state. A well-designed OTL has a distinctive sonic signature with spectacular transparency and vivid 3D imaging. Yes, I'm a confirmed imaging freak. I lean towards that wonderfully detailed holographic soundstage. Yet you often walk a fine line that can wander between real and artificial. It's like turning up the sharpness control on a television. You get the illusion of more detail but in reality the finest details are obscured. I'm continuously aware of the sharpness analogy relative to audio. For me OTLs in general, and the 350Ms specifically, are naturally transparent, detailed with solid imaging. Add a total lack of grain plus a dead quiet background and you will begin to appreciate that we have something really special here.

The Tenors bring a remarkable top-to-bottom continuity, which I've often called the Kharma effect (the speaker, not the moral law of cause and effect) in tribute to what I believe is the most coherent, disappearing, seamless loudspeaker ever made. As a traditional amp moves from frequency A to frequency B, its tonal characteristics often change. Some emphasize certain frequencies or certain ranges. Others are weak in one area but strong in another. Yet real music in real space presents a seamless continuity when room boundaries and acoustics are neutral. The Tenors are the only amplifying devices I know of which do not change tonal colors, emphasis or resolution from the deepest bass through the highest treble. The high resolution without microscopic steps as the music flows from one note to the next makes other amps sound - um, how can I say this - well, digital.

The subtle micro shadings found in real music are often obscured by this mechanical nature of reproduction. Any device that can help mitigate these problems moves us closer to the live event. The 350M is such a device. I don't know why, whether it's their control of the speaker or their ability to deliver an increase of low-level detail to the speakers. Whatever the reason, heretofore hidden details and 'micro shadings' are far clearer with the Tenors than with any other amplifier. A small intimate recording such as Bach's Suites for Unaccompanied Cello [Janos Starker, Mercury SR3-9016] is civilized and refined with subtle textures as delicate as real life. It's a perfect example of internal beauty mixed with an energy that scales directly with the music. Play your special go-to recordings and I guarantee that you will hear new-found detail and nuance.

At one time or another we've all heard wonderful midrange and treble detail textures but as you move down in frequency response, the subtle details often meld together into a homogeneous singularity. What if you could have the detail and subtlety of the finest midrange throughout the entire musical spectrum? Imagine if you could hear the same shadings heard at the most intimate levels of midrange and treble but translated to the low end and with all the authority of an unlimited well of power? This is the low end of a Tenor.

Many consider the big-time mainstream amps such as Krell, Levinson, Halcro and a few others to be the final word on iron-fisted bass response and control. Yes, these amps plumb the depths and are the antithesis of bloaty, flabby or loose. As a former owner of Krell and Levinson, I can tell you that now there's a new sheriff in town. The Tenors bring everything these amps have at the bottom and add to it glorious dynamic shadings and textures. The room-shaking power is there - deeper and more forceful than I've ever heard. But the real difference is the subtleties that others only hint at yet which the 350Ms develop.

The finest soundstage I've ever heard, period, end of story, not even close. It's deep, layered and holographic. Yep, I am a soundstaging freak. I love to be immersed but properly scaled relative to the music. I tend toward equipment that projects the soundstage in front of the speakers. The Tenors scale the soundstage and present it more accurately, I believe, than any other amplifier in my experience. It's just there, realistically.

Link do recenzji: Tenor 350M – 6 Moons

Link: Tenor Audio 350M – 6 Moons – Blue Moon Award